Back in April, we reported about Toshiba commenting on production of memory in the 20-30 nanometer range around late 2010 or early 2011. Just recently, Toshiba and SanDisk have jointly announced plans to introduce the world to the first massively produced sub-30nm NAND flash process in the second half of 2010. According to industry sources, the joint-venture semiconductor facility in Yokkaichi, Japan is expected to ramp up its monthly capacity to around 200,000 wafers by the end of this year.

In other words, this means great news for SSD prices, as the cost structure of the technology would be positively influenced for consumers with NAND flash chips on a 20nm-class fabrication process. Toshiba has stated that mass production of 32nm chips is already in effect, and it had originally expected over 50 percent of total output to be at 32nm by the end of 2009.

However, there are two independent variables to the situation. Intel and Micron have jointly announced that they expect to introduce 20nm-class NAND flash by the end of 2009. At the same time, Toshiba has stated that its 32nm ramp-up schedule is a little behind and this means that Intel and Micron may be the first to market with feasible products.

Samsung has also been said to be improving its efforts in the SSD market specifically. The company is moving to upgrade its 8-inch fab in Austin, Texas to a 12-inch fab for producing more NAND flash chips beginning in 2H 2010 as well.

With the rise of sub-30nm competition on its way, the benefit for consumers interested in investing in Solid State Disk technology can only be positive and more reasonable at best.